UCI Track World Championships
Ballerup on the outskirts of Copenhagen was the venue for the UCI Track World Championships with three Scots in action.
Team Pursuit
Katie Archibald returned to the Velodrome in style, claiming an incredible gold as part of the women’s team pursuit squad that claimed back-to-back world titles.
Having qualified fastest, the British quartet wasted no time in delivering an impressively dominant first round performance which saw them catch the Chinese team at just over the halfway mark to put them through to the gold medal final against Germany.
With six laps to go, the team were on track to make the catch, and completed their goal with 625m to go, delivering an impressive defence of their world title to take the gold.
Women’s Madison
Archibald was joined by Neah Evans for the women’s madison. Starting strong with a clear sprint tactic, the pair comfortably racked up points in almost every sprint to sit firmly at the top of the leaderboard for the first part of the race. Archibald looked confident and back to form, while Evans delivered impressive sprints, putting her head down to get the job done in a busy field.
The tartan duo continued to take sprint points, extending their lead before Italy, France and the Netherlands took a lap, knocking Neah and Katie into fourth place and seven points off the podium. Soon after, Denmark made a solo break with the home crowd roading behind them.
With 10 laps to go, a powerful changeover mid-lap saw the Brits take maximum points in the penultimate sprint but still one point shy of the podium, needing the next sprint win get onto a step.
In the final four laps, the pace ramped up with France and the Netherlands pushing on the front. Evans moved a lap later with a huge effort and the other favourites followed in hot pursuit. Evans got a final handsling in to perfectly position Archibald ahead of the final sprint against France, the Netherlands and Denmark. In a ferocious final push, Archibald took the final sprint win for Great Britain, pipping the Dutch team to get their hands on a bronze medal.
Points Race
Neah Evans had mixed fortunes in the women’s points race, collecting good sprint points and taking a lap before an unfortunate crash in the last lap saw her out of contention for the final sprint points to finish eighth overall.
Mark Stewart put in an impressive ride in a non-stop men’s points race that saw attacks and lap-takes aplenty, finishing a commendable sixth overall.
The race saw attack after attack, with the action regularly being splintered across the track as riders worked hard to rack up those all-important points, through sprints or lap takes.
Stewart positioned himself well throughout the race, regularly featuring in moves including one with 97 laps to go, where Stewart formed a group with a number of top riders getting off the front of the race to take a lap and push him up to 11th place. This was followed by a solo break which saw him take the following sprint and move up to seventh place.
In an incredibly disjointed race, Stewart stayed with the key groups and with six sprints to go, he made it into another group of nine who gained half a lap on the bunch where Stewart took another five sprint points.
In a ferocious race, Stewart rarely missed a move, but after narrowly positioning himself outside a few sprint points, that set him 15 points off the podium heading to the end of the race where he finished a commendable sixth overall.
Men’s Madison
An attacking men’s Madison race saw Mark Stewart and Ethan Hayter fire to fifth position in the final race of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Ballerup.
A steady start saw Great Britain stay within touching distance of early points, but just were outside the awarding places. Despite taking the final sprint, it wasn’t quite enough to end up in the medals.
Scottish Cyclocross Series
Sunday may have seen Storm Ashley batter Scotland, but it was Lewis Martin (Studio Velo) that swept to victory at the latest round of the HUPcc Scottish Cyclocross Series in Brechin.
Off the start line series leader Charles Fletcher snapped his chain, with further commotion as his spare bike was on the wrong side of the pits. Unfortunately for the Borders man a second mechanical took him out of the race for good, leaving the overall wide open with three races to go.
There was perhaps no surprise as to the winner, Lewis Martin, now one of the best in Britain, coming home almost three minutes clear of the rest. William Weatherill would take second, again three minutes up on the next finisher, Deeside’s Neil Scott.
In the Female race, combining all categories, and whilst the weather had improved dramatically on the morning, the course conditions hadn’t, favouring those with a strong technical skillset.
In the Senior race Anna Flynn (Spectra) made a flying start to her cyclocross season, an outrageously quick opening lap seeing her away and clear – she wouldn’t be caught as she took the win. It was another classy rider in the form of Ishbel Strathdee who would come home in second, just over a minute in arrears. Arabella Blackburn (Shibden Apex) was to the fore early on, going on to take the Junior win, as well as third overall, whilst third place in the seniors would go to first year U23 Daisy Taylor.
The open junior saw Gregor Calvert (West Lothian Clarion) taking the win from Ross Easthaugh (Scotia Offroad RT), with a strong ride from junior Edward Lindsay (Team Andrew Allan Architecture) to take third.
In the youth open races, it was Muir of Ord winners Arran Drackford (Falkirk Junior BC) and Josh Stewart (Stepping Stanes) who once again took top billing, with Zara Main (Deeside Thistle) and Emma Nicholson (East Kilbride) taking the two U16 and U14 female wins, respectively.
Image: Team dsm-firmenich PosttNL
Tour of Guangxi
Oscar Onley (Team dsm-fimenich PostNL) was on fine form at the final UCI World Tour race of the season – the Tour of Guangxi in China.
Another strong showing from the Kelso native, saw him claim second on the queen stage to the imaginatively named “Nongla Scenic Area” on his way to claiming second overall – his best stage race result at WorldTour level.